Mechanical wrist watches employ spring wound mechanisms which convert the stored energy of the main-spring into mechanical movement of the watch's hands. Typically, such watches must be hand wound every two or three days to assure continuous operation. If the user forgets to wind the watch, the spring motor will eventually unwind causing the watch to cease operation. Self-winding mechanisms now commonly used in wrist watches are derived from technology dating to the 1930's. Such mechanisms comprise a rotary pendulum in the form of a sector with a swing angle of 120°. The inventive apparatus of this invention is designed for winding such self-winding mechanisms.
Self-winding apparatus has been widely used by watch retailers and watch collectors. However, prior art apparatus have one or more of the following shortcomings:    1) Some apparatus function poorly in terms of exhibition qualities. In a watch shop, the apparatus is not only designed for winding the watch automatically, but also plays a role of exhibition. Therefore, watches carried by such apparatus must always be noticed by the visitor and in its best orientation. But prior art apparatus (such as GB 2233477A, DE 19535229A1, U.S. Pat. No. 6,254,270 B1) are continuously rotating. Some of them (such as U.S. Pat. No. 6,254,270 B1) position the watch in an unfavorable orientation. Thus, a visitor can only see the crown side with no chance to stare at its dial for surveying the detail.    2) Prior art apparatus commonly have not considered the mechanical characteristics of the main-spring. All watches carried by such prior art apparatus are working in a fully-wound condition. Some of them are even advertised to have the feature that any time when the watch is taken from the winder, it will be fully wound. It is a common sense that a main-spring working in fully-wound condition all day long will impair its resiliency and affect the accuracy of the watch.    3) Prior art apparatus commonly employ and use an inconvenient way to carry the watch. This will be an obvious shortcoming in a watch shop, and for other users, since any watch carried by the apparatus may be dismounted and mounted many times every day for visitors. Since the apparatus is typically in a location (such as in a showing window) with limited space, it is very inconvenient to dismount and mount the watch frequently.    4) Since the electric motor and gear system of prior art apparatus should be continuously running in the showing time, it will tend to quickly wear out and produce a terrible noise especially when it is put in/on a resonant location.    5) The user is unable for most prior art apparatus to select mode of operation to closely match the winding specification as required by the movement manufacturers.